Two Demonstrations Protesting Israeli Bombing & Siege of Gaza - Both on Tuesday, December 30th ~ Westwood Federal Building from 3:00-5:30 PM ~ Israeli Consulate from 4:30-7:00 PM
Two Demonstrations Protesting the Israeli Bombing & Siege of Gaza
275 Palestinians Estimated Dead, 700 Injured
Both on Tuesday, December 30th
Westwood Federal Building - 3:00 to 5:30 PM
Israeli Consulate - 4:30 PM to 7:00 PM
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Join LA Jews for Peace in a Demonstration to
Protest the Israeli Bombing & Siege of Gaza
Tuesday, December 30th, 3:00 PM to 5:30 PM
Westwood Federal Building at Wilshire & Veteran
3-hour visitor parking in the Federal Building lot
To protest Israel’s relentless bombing raids on Gaza, LA Jews for Peace asks you to join with them and
others in expressing outrage over the hundreds of Palestinians killed and wounded in the latest attacks.
As you know, the situation is Gaza has been intolerable for a long time. With the full support of the U.S. government, the Israeli blockade has deepened the shortage of food, medicine, fuel, electric power, and commercial goods. The UN Secretary General, the Swiss government, and other groups have called the situation a humanitarian crisis and a violation of the 4th Geneva Convention. It is surely a violation of Jewish and international law. The bombings and blockade are not only cruel and inhumane, but also counter-productive in that they fuel the violence and work to undermine efforts to achieve peace through negotiations. LA Jews for Peace calls for an end to US military aid to Israel, an end to Israeli raids and Hamas rocket attacks, resumption of shipments of food and medical supplies to the people of Gaza, and admittance of journalists to Gaza to report on the desperate conditions and mounting Palestinian death toll.
LA Jews will have signs & banners; bring your own; but no flags please since our message is internationalism & humanism, not nationalism.
Also
National Day of Action
Emergency Demonstration in Los Angeles
Tuesday, December 30th, 4:30 PM to 7:00 PM
Israeli Consulate
6380 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles
The ANSWER Coalition, Muslim American ! Society Freedom, Free Palestine Alliance, National Council of Arab Americans, and Al-Awda, International Palestine Right to Return Coalition are calling for Tuesday, December 30 to be a National Day of Action to show solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza and to demand an immediate end to the murderous attacks carried out by the Israeli military against the people of Gaza.
In Los Angeles, there will be a demonstration at the Israeli Consulate at 4:30 pm. We urge all progressive people to attend. Bring signs, banners and Palestinian flags to show your solidarity with the suffering people and denounce the inhuman war crimes committed against the Palestinians in Gaza.
For more info call 213-251-1025 or email: answerla@answerla.org
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UPDATED INFORMATION
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=34246
The number of victims are expected to rise & the assault is expected to continue & widen, as Israel has declared.
To help with Emergency Relief go to: http://www.kinderusa.org/
For updated news, the best source is Ma’an News Agency:
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php
http://www.kpfk.org/-%20%20http:/www.maannews.net/en/index.php
You can also check out: http://english.aljazeera.net/news62.html
ACTIONS:
Take Action to Protest Israeli Attack on Gaza
Mid-morning Saturday, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) launched a series of deadly air strikes on the occupied Gaza Strip. As we write this, an estimated 275 people have been killed. Hundreds of innocent people have been wounded. According to news reports today, Israel plans to keep these attacks going and has brought scores of tanks to the border with Gaza.
These Israeli attacks come on top of a brutal siege of the Gaza Strip which has been going on for years and has created a humanitarian catastrophe of dire proportions for Gaza’s 1.5 million Palestinian residents by restricting the provision of food, fuel, medicine, electricity, and other necessities of life. All of this is happening in the most densely populated and one of the poorest areas of the world.
Israel is carrying out these attacks with F-16 fighter jets and missiles provided by U.S. taxpayers. From 2001-2006, the United States transferred to Israel more than $200 million worth of spare parts to fly its fleet of F-16’s. In July 2008, the United States gave Israel 186 million gallons of JP-8 aviation jet fuel. Last year, the United States signed a $1.3 billion contract with Raytheon to transfer to Israel thousands of TOW, Hellfire, and ‘bunker buster’ missiles.
Israel’s lethal attack on the Gaza Strip could not have happened without the active military and political support of the United States. We need to take action now to protest this attack and demand an immediate cease fire.
The U.S. Campaign to End the Israel Occupation (a member group pf UFPJ) has issued an action alert with these suggestions — we urge you to take action today! www.ufpj.org
- Contact the White House to protest the attacks and demand an immediate cease-fire. Call 202-456-1111 or send an email to comments@whitehouse.gov.
- Contact the State Department at 202-647-6575 or send an email by clicking here.
- Contact your Representative and Senators in Congress at 202-224-3121 or find contact info for your Members of Congress by clicking here.
- Contact your local media by phoning into a talk show or writing a letter to the editor. To find contact info for your local media, click here.
- Organize a local protest or vigil and tell us about it by clicking here.
- Sign our open letter to President-Elect Obama calling for a new U.S. policy toward Israel/Palestine and find out other steps you can take to influence the incoming Administration by clicking here.
In addition, the Middle East Children’s Alliance (another member group of UFPJ) is working with health organizations in Gaza to procure the most-needed medicines and send them directly to Gaza with the help of the Free Gaza Movement. You can make a secure online contribution now.
A Press Release from The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD)
Jerusalem, December 27, 2008
ISRAEL: END THE ATTACKS ON GAZA IMMEDIATELY: ENTER INTO GENUINE NEGOTIATIONS TO END THE OCCUPATION NOW!
Let’s be crystal clear. Israel’s massive attacks on Gaza today have one overarching goal: conflict management. How to end rocket attacks on Israel from a besieged and starving Gaza without ending the impetus for those attacks, 41 years of increasingly oppressive Israeli Occupation without a hint that a sovereign and viable Palestinian state will ever emerge.
Indeed, the Occupation, in which Israel controls Gaza under a violent siege which violates fundamental human rights and international law, is not even mentioned in Israel’s PR campaign. Speaking to the international community, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni insists that no country would tolerate its citizens being attacked, a seemingly reasonable statement were it not for Israeli sanctions on Gaza supported by the US and Europe - sanctions that preceded the rocket fire on Israel - or the fact of Israeli Occupation in general. Solely focusing on the rocket attacks conceals the political policy that led to them: "The Hamas government in Gaza must be toppled," Livni has said repeatedly. "The means to do this must be military, economic and diplomatic."
The responsibility for the suffering both in Israel and Gaza rests squarely with successive Israeli governments, Labor, Likud and Kadima alike. Had there been a genuine political process (remember, the closure of Gaza began in 1989), Israelis and Palestinians could have been living together in peace and prosperity already for 20 years. After all, already in 1988 the PLO accepted the two-state solution in which a Palestinian state would arise on only 22% of historic Palestine, alongside the state of Israel on the other 78%. A truly generous offer.
In Israel, however, the effort is to hide its preference for control over peace. Framing its attacks as a response to rockets from Gaza, exploiting an immediate trigger to effectively conceal deeper political intentions and policies, does that. It also conceals Israeli violations of the cease-fire. The fact that the rocket attacks could have been avoided altogether through a genuine political process means that the people of southern Israel are being held hostage by their government as well. Their suffering, and the suffering of the people of Gaza and the rest of the Occupied Territories, must be placed squarely at the feet of the Israeli government.
Israel cannot expect security for its people and political normalcy as long as it occupies Palestinian lands and continues its attempt to impose its permanent rule over the Palestinians by military force. We call on the Israeli government to end its aggression immediately and enter into genuine political negotiations with a united Palestinian leadership. We call on the international community to end its sanctions on Gaza immediately in accordance with international law, initiate an effective political process to end the Israeli Occupation and bring about a just peace - which reflects the will of the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions is based in Jerusalem and has chapters in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Please visit our websites:
www.icahd.org
www.icahduk.org
www.icahdusa.org
